Over 1,500 government doctors in the State Health Service staged a dharna in front of the Secretariat on Tuesday in protest against the government’s “inaction and continued disinterest” in resolving the anomalies in the Tenth Pay Commission recommendations, which had resulted in a slash of even the existing salaries.
The Commission’s recommendations were fraught with anomalies, including the discrepancies in the Civil Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon ratio, non-renewal of allowances for government doctors working as casualty medical officers and the non-fixation of the basic pay of specialist doctors in tune with their qualifications, a statement issued by the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) said .
After the GO was issued on the Tenth Pay Commission, government doctors had to deal with a cut in their basic pay scales and ended up having to pay back huge sums to the government, it pointed out.
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The dharna was inaugurated by KGMOA president V. Madhu.
The government doctors launched their State-wide non-cooperation strike from Tuesday and boycotted the review meetings held at the local body-block-DMO level in all districts.
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KGMOA said that as part of their non-cooperation, they will boycott VIP duty, all medical camps held outside the institution except immunization camps, training programmes as well as all review meetings. The doctors will also stop pay ward admissions and will not take any additional charges.
If their issues were not resolved, they will stage a fast on Thiruvonam day in front of the Secretariat.
The KGMOA also proposes to hold a State-wide token strike stopping all patient care services on September 27, if the government continues to ignore the issue.